NA approves Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Bill

ISLAMABAD         -             The National Assembly in a legislation specific session approved “The Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2022” with majority of votes. The legislation, carried out around a week before the LG Polls in federal capital, aimed at increasing the number of existing Union Councils in Islamabad and direct election of mayor. Under the amendments moved by treasury benches lawmaker, there will be 125 Union Councils within the Islamabad Capital Territory to cater for the existing population of the federal capital. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor shall be directly elected as joint candidates by the voters. The chair prorogued the session only after approving The Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2022. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) MNA, criticizing the clauses of the bill, said that there was no point of passing this bill around a one month before the LG polls in the federal capital. The lawmaker from religio-political party strongly opposed the bill. Dr. Ramesh Kumar also asked the reasons behind passing the bill in haste. Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training Zeb Jaffer, responding to call-attention notice, that laptops will also be provided to students of Madaris and erstwhile FATA as admissible to students of universities. The House also passed “The Federal Employees Benevolent Fund and Group Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2022.” The house saw very thin presence from both sides of the aisle during the sitting but quorum was not pointed out during the legislative business

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